I'm working a ex tax-defaulted vacant lot in Southern California. It has two private loans on it, both recorded in 2018: - 1st: about $617K, split among five private lenders: - Lender A: 38.9%. He's also tied to the borrowing entity and is the trustee. - Lender B: 20.6%, held in a self-directed IRA. He's in his 80s. - Lender C: 16.2% - Lender D: 16.2% - Lender E: 8.1% - 2nd: about $265K seller carry, held 100% by one LLC. What went wrong the first time: I had the lot under contract with the owner, who is also the person who raised the private money. We ended up canceling. He had no servicing agreements on file, so nobody had clear authority to sign payoffs or releases for the lenders. The lenders themselves were hard to pin down, too: several are out of county or out of state, and at least one was reportedly deceased. Without everyone on the 1st signing off, we couldn't get clear title. The workaround I'm considering: the 1st's deed of trust says the lenders agreed in writing to be governed by holders of more than 50% of the beneficial interest on default, foreclosure, and sale, "including designation of the broker, servicing agent, or other person acting on their behalf." That's the Civil Code 2941.9 language. 1. Buy Lender B's 20.6% out of his IRA. He directs his custodian to sell, and I'm not a disqualified person. 2. Buy Lender A's 38.9%, or get him to vote with me. Together that's 59.5%, a majority. 3. Use the majority to appoint a servicer, then approve a short payoff or short sale and take the lot, or foreclose if needed. A foreclosure on the 1st wipes out the 2nd, which gives me leverage there. Questions for the group: - Has anyone used a 2941.9 majority to appoint a servicer and push through a payoff or foreclosure over missing or non-responsive minority lenders? Did title insure it? - If a minority lender is deceased, does the majority clause get around needing their estate to sign, or does title still want probate or a successor? - What are the gotchas with buying a fractional interest out of an IRA (custodian timing, paperwork)? - Lender A is on every side of this. How would you protect yourself? - Is there a risk of merger of title if I hold part of the note and then take title? - Anything I'm missing on the tax-default side?

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Question for @Ellis San Jose and anyone in CA running large spreads ($100K–$200K+) on probate / curative title deals: Have you ever had a judge actually contest or rework the final distribution because of what you paid the heirs? Context: acquiring heir interests at a steep discount, professional fiduciary as administrator, consents in hand. I know the court can review consideration at distribution and — depending on the judge — call it insufficient and rework the deal. I’m trying to separate theory from what’s actually happening in the field. Specifically: - Has a judge ever reversed, reduced, or forced you to pay more at distribution? Which county? - What spreads are consistently getting approved vs. drawing scrutiny? - What structures have kept it clean — deeds signed over upfront, back-end estate sale (cash in the estate, then assignments), something else? - Any judges or counties you now plan around?